Changes

Hello Fans. I hope you are enjoying The Man. My book not an actual man. I have for you today chapter 5. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 5

Fred watched Al lean back and take a pull from his vaporizer and thought about how Al seemed to have everything planned out and was executing his plan like a chess grand master. He would never admit it but Fred thought Al was a pretty cool dude. “I have another meeting in like 10 minutes. So let’s assume that, Jason is accepting this position and get all the other paper work ready for Friday. I will send you and him, a meeting invitation. Cool?” Fred nodded his head yes, took his cue and left the office. Al took one last pull from his vaporizer before putting it back into the case and shoving that case in the desks top drawer. The next meeting was a teleconference with the Midwest Security board. Every teleconference system had its own nuances and took some time to master. Al was just awarded a board seat this year and didn’t want to be late for any conferences. Being late would make him look bad and he didn’t need to look bad in his first five years. If he played his cards right, this board position would finance his retirement and really finance it, as in no life style changes when he and Brenda move to some really nice condo on the beach in an ocean town somewhere in Florida. He will play golf every day, join the Lions and Shriners, she can drink with her girlfriends and shop at the end of the day as long as the two were together he would die happy. Beep Beep. He hit the wrong button again this is why he did his best to dial in before the meetings started. He navigated back one screen to the main menu found the address book and what looked like the right entry and tapped the screen. The television filled with an image of old white men sitting or in the act of sitting around a massive mahogany table. Al’s hair was not gray yet. He was however losing it. It was thinning in certain spots very soon he was going to have to decide to shave it or get the surgery. The surgery really scared him. They cut your head! He knew the fear was not logical. The procedure was done every day and it seemed safe but his fear was not grounded in logic it was, like most fear, illogical and unwarranted but, it was the reason he had not done the surgery yet and vanity kept him from shaving his head. He was 54 now. He was certain that in 6 years fear and or vanity would have far less sway on him and he would be sporting a full head of hair or be a Mr. Clean look alike. “Alright I am calling this board meeting to order. Are we recording?” Everrett Baron was 72 years old but still sharp. He had an I Phone full of his favorite music. His contact list had numbers for his wife , grand kids, the President of the United States and he contacted all of them. Everrett embraced living in the 21st century. The learning curve for using technology in his business was, like all other learning curves Everrett had faced in business conquered by him quickly. When he was 20 the nation was suffering through the worst depression in its history. World War 2 was expensive and no one had a job. This did not stop Everrett. He took his meager income and advantage of the down trodden economy and bought a small restaurant in Nebraska, shortly after he owned a restaurant, bar and hotel. That was when he incorporated, created Midwest Security and began buying and selling business interests. He was now a billionaire. Everyone in that room had respect for this man who at 70 was sharper than most men half his age. The IT tech nodded his head and then left the board room. All the meetings were recorded and three locations were teleconferenced in, however the meetings were always confidential. No one but the board members’ were allowed access to the meetings. These meetings had the ability to and often did make or break economies small and large. Midwest security controlled a large portion of the world’s capital and physical resources through their security. The decision to close a mine in an African country could make major economic and cultural changes all over the world. The curved flat screen television set mounted to the wall in the board room displayed three remote users images to the right of a power point slide that had a bulleted agenda for the board meeting. Towards the bottom of the agenda list was an entry representing Al’s part of the meeting. The entry read; Smart Nation report (sustainability and profitability). Al was prepared and ready to impress his colleagues. He knew these meetings were half work and half show. Impress these guys and big things happen for you…

While Al was working on impressing the masters of industry and commerce, Jason sat at his desk and held a blank stare at his computer screen for more than 5 minutes. His mind was so unfocused. Normally he would have checked his e-mail by now, at the very least, but he had stared into a blank monitor for five minutes now. In less than 24 hours he had lost a wife and been offered a life changing position. He was 90 percent sure that he was going to take the job, he hoped he would not regret it. He was going to google the average salary for CIO as well as the average longevity of a CIO position when he does he will find that, the average salary for a CIO in the United states, is somewhere around 150, 000 dollars a year. He will also see that, the average career for a CIO in one corporation lasts for about four years. He would see that four years and cringe but he would still accept this offer. By this time next week, Jason would be newly single an executive in his corporation and making over six figures a year. Jason smiled at this realization and decided that tonight he would do his best to celebrate. Jason hit the space bar and logged into his work PC, still smiling at the prospects of tonight’s fun.